Posts tagged with "Olson Kundig":

As a fitting kickoff to Earth Day weekend, the American Institute of Architects (AIA) Committee on the Environment (COTE) has announced the 2018 recipients of its COTE Top Ten Awards. Honoring ten projects that have surpassed rigorous thresholds in integration, energy use, water conservation, and wellness benchmarks, the award showcases cutting-edge buildings that are not only sustainable, but that contribute to the surrounding neighborhood. This year’s jury included:

Michelle Addington, Dean, School of Architecture, The University of Texas Austin Austin, Texas

Jennifer Devlin-Herbert, FAIA, EHDD. San Francisco

Kevin Schorn, AIA, Renzo Piano Building Workshop, New York

Julie V. Snow, FAIA, Snow Kreilich, Minneapolis

Susan Ubbelohde, LOISOS + UBBELOHDE, Alameda, California

The 2018 awardees ranged in usage from libraries to art galleries, as well as one single-family home. While the COTE Top Ten Awards are given to buildings that meet certain requirements, an additional “Top Ten Plus Award” is handed out to a single project with exceptional post-occupancy performance. The winners are as follows:
Albion District Library; Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Architect: Perkins+Will
According to the jury: "This project clearly demonstrates the immediate positive impact of good design. A district library that serves a diverse and newly-immigrant community, the library has a dramatically increased visitorship (with a notable 75 percent increase for teenagers) over the old facility."Georgia Tech Engineered Biosystems Building; Atlanta, Georgia
Architect: Lake|Flato in collaboration with Cooper Carry
According to the jury: "The Georgia Tech Engineered Biosystems Building weaves a large array of active and passive strategies into a highly tuned machine for this university research laboratory."Mundo Verde at Cook Campus; Washington
Architect: Studio Twenty Seven Architecture
According to the jury: "A 25,000-gallon cistern holds rainwater for reuse, while the gardens have increased site vegetation from zero to 40 percent."Nancy and Stephen Grand Family House; San Francisco
Architect: Leddy Maytum Stacy Architects
According to the jury: "This cost-effective building serves a community of sick children and their families while prioritizing environmental performance."New United States Courthouse; Los Angeles; Los Angeles
Architect: Skidmore, Owings & Merrill LLP
According to the jury: "We were impressed with the quality of the calm, light-filled interior spaces for occupants who are often in the courthouse under difficult circumstances."The Renwick Gallery of the Smithsonian American Art Museum; Washington, D.C.
Architect: DLR Group
According to the jury: "The Renwick Gallery renovation wove complex and robust new systems while preserving the impressive historic design and collection and allowing opportunities for new works to be displayed."San Francisco Art Institute - Fort Mason Center Pier 2; San Francisco
Architect: Leddy Maytum Stacy Architects
According to the jury: "The design team recognized the assets of the existing structure and created a great, low-energy building with a healthy interior environment."Sawmill; Tehachapi, California
Architect: Olson Kundig
According to the jury: "The team is commended for their site-specific analysis, as evidenced by the decision to let rainwater recharge the water table rather than collect it. If a single-family dwelling is to be built in a desert climate, this is how to do it."Sonoma Academy’s Janet Durgin Guild & Commons; Santa Rosa, California
Architect: WRNS Studio
According to the jury: "This project demonstrates that, even with an energy-heavy program that includes a commercial kitchen, a fully integrated and dedicated design team can produce a beautiful and extremely well-performing building."Top Ten Plus winner:Ortlieb's Bottling House; Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Architect: KieranTimberlake
According to the jury: "An exceptional example of passive strategies used in adaptive reuse of an historic urban building."

The new Kirkland Museum of Fine & Decorative Art opens tomorrow, March 10, in Denver’s growing museum district. “I wanted Kirkland Museum to play off its neighbors–international icons like the Denver Art Museum building by Daniel Libeskind and the Clyfford Still Museum by Allied Works–while continuing my larger architectural philosophy of always trying to create a greater unified whole. For example, the vertical grooves of the Clyfford Still Museum influenced the vertical random character of the facade tiles on Kirkland Museum,” said architect Jim Olson of Olson Kundig.
However, Olson saw the neighboring buildings’ neutral facades as an opportunity to make the Kirkland shine, quite literally. Clad in striking yellow terra-cotta bars by NBK and gold painted glass tiles by John Lewis Glass, the 38,500-square-foot museum truly lives up to the museum district’s moniker, the Golden Triangle.
The Kirkland Museum contains approximately 30,000 works from Colorado artists, as well as the International Decorative Art Collection, which is comprised of over 20,0000 objects. It is named for Vance Kirkland, a seminal 20th century Denver-based painter known for his surreal and abstract works. The collections were originally housed in Kirkland’s former educational space and studio. Part of the construction challenge involved relocating the Vance Kirkland Studio, built in 1911, from its location downtown on Pearl Street to the new building about one mile away. “It was the soul of the whole project,” Olson said. “Rather than trying to blend the new, modern building with the old, we decided to let them just stand side by side, each its unique self. I thought of the buildings as two artifacts in the decorative arts collection. We broke down the scale of the new building into smaller segments, which helped bring the old building into the total composition.”
This layout approach also helped Olson achieve the client’s directive of making museum visitors feel as though “they are visiting a grand residence filled with art and beautiful objects;” more like a salon and less like a formal museum. Olson maintained the density and scale of the original Kirkland studio throughout the new space, but created an easy-to-navigate floor plan with a central promenade and color-coded wayfinding throughout the galleries. He extended this inviting ambiance to the street through a series of windows and art-filled vitrines on the building’s exterior, allowing pedestrians to get a glimpse of the collections inside, as well as the outdoor sculptures.
“The horizontal overhangs on the building help to create a more human, residential scale,” Olson explained. “The glass facade tiles are handmade, and the colored glass fins near the entry are also crafted by hand. The bronze-colored entry door has a steel and wood handle. We tried to relate to craft and human touch wherever we could. We wanted the building to feel personal and finely crafted, like the collections it contains.”
For more information on the Kirkland Museum of Fine & Decorative Art, visit the museum’s website.

Welcome to AN Interior's inaugural top 50 interior architect and designer list, featuring emerging and established firms across the U.S. While these architects' and designers' talents certainly go beyond interior work, they are deftly pushing the boundaries of residential, retail, workplace, and hospitality spaces and cleverly reimagining the spaces we inhabit.
Ensamble Studio Boston, Madrid
With a distinct focus on the process of making, Ensamble Studio leverages material technologies to produce dramatic spaces and forms.
64NorthLos Angeles
Multidisciplinary studio 64North provides branding, interiors, website, and product design services.Architecture is FunChicago

As the name implies, Architecture Is Fun produces playful designs, frequently working with children’s museums; it won AIA Chicago’s 2017 Firm of the Year award.
UrbanLabChicago, Los Angeles

MKCA’s puzzle-like built-ins make the most of tiny living spaces.
NADAAANew York, Boston

NADAAA’s work engages with high-tech material investigations and form finding.
LOT
New York, Athens

The influence of LOT’s Greek office is clear in its mellow, refined interiors and the firm’s furniture line, Objects of Common Interest.
MOS ArchitectsNew York

The highly intellectual work of MOS plays on contemporary and historical architectural philosophies.
Norman Kelley
Chicago, New York

A self-described superficial practice, Carrie Norman and Thomas Kelley explore the concepts of play, illusion, and flatness, all within an often tongue-in-cheek understanding of historical precedent.
SnarkitectureNew York

It should be no surprise that a firm named Snarkitecture produces works that are often outlandish—tempered by clean, white color palettes.
INABA Williams
New York

Part think tank and part design firm, every INABA Williams project is rooted in an in-depth research process.

The Architect’s Newspaper will be hosting its Facades+AM conference in Seattle on December 8th at the Motif Seattle Hotel. The latest installment in AN’s ongoing conference series, Facades+AM will bring a total of three sessions and nine speakers to Emerald City–based Architecture Engineering and Construction industry professionals. The conference is co-chaired by Stephen Van Dyck, partner at LMN Architects (LMN), and will feature a bevy of Seattle-specific discussions led by some of the region’s best-known architects, designers, and engineers, including Van Dyck, Maurya McClintock of McClintock Facade Consulting, and Jim Graham of Graham Baba Architects. The morning’s panel presentations will cover three topics: cross-industry innovation, facade design for the Washington State Convention Center Addition project, and the role of historic preservation in Seattle’s ongoing construction boom. The first panel will be moderated by Van Dyck, who explained to AN that the discussion will center around the way in which Seattle’s tech-heavy economy is resulting in a collection of emerging architecture industry–adjacent technologies. The discussion will include presentations from Dan Belcher, developer with McNeel, Andry Bridge, Director of R&D with Janicki, and Choong Ng, co-founder of Vertex.AI, and will delve into synergistic technological developments coming of out the city’s most fruitful architecture and technology partnerships, like new advances in digitally-guided tooling and fabrication methodologies. The morning’s second panel discussion will zero-in on the Washington State Convention Center Addition project, for which LMN is serving as associate architect. The 1.5 million-square-foot addition to the Washington State Convention Center will usher in one of the world's first vertically-organized convention centers. One of the major challenges for the design team on the project will be to integrate the sprawling 15-story structure into surrounding areas while also promoting energy efficiency and social incubation, according to Van Dyck, who will also moderate this discussion. He will be joined by various members of the project team discussing each speaker's respective role in the project. Panelists for the discussion will be Peter Alspach, principal at ARUP, Maurya McClintock, founder of McClintock Facade Consulting, and Kate Rufe, architect at LMN.The morning’s final discussion will highlight Seattle’s ongoing growth dilemma, which is pitting high-rise residential growth and the city’s urban renewal against historic preservation efforts, many of which are aimed toward adaptive reuse, like Olson Kundig's renovations to the Seattle Space Needle. From the ongoing issues over changes coming to Lawrence Halprin’s Freeway Park, to plans for reusing the city’s iconic Key Arena and LMN’s own renovation and expansion to the Asian Art Museum, Seattle is packed with controversial, inspiring, and thoughtful historic preservation approaches alike. The adaptive reuse-focused panel—moderated by Jessica Miller, principal at LMN—will feature presentations from Blair Payson, principal at Olson Kundig, Michael Aoki-Kramer, managing principal at RDH Building Science, Inc., and Jim Graham, co-founder of Graham Baba Architects who will discuss their own firms’ preservation-related projects.For more information on Seattle’s Facades+AM conference, see the conference website.

For the second time this year, Seattle-based Olson Kundig has released new, jaw-dropping renderings depicting the firm’s planned renovations for the Seattle Space Needle. The renderings come as construction on the $100 million Century Project gets underway, following the installation of a 44,650-square-foot scaffolding platform at the base of the Space Needle’s Tophouse. The platform, installed by scaffolding firm Safway, will act as a base for a temporary, weather-proof structure that will shield the project’s 25 construction workers from inclement weather at the top of the Space Needle, 400 feet up in the air. The temporary structure will contain construction activity to the exterior of the Tophouse, allowing for the facilities to remain open throughout the build-out.The new renderings showcase the breath-taking vistas Olson Kundig’s designs will lend to the Space Needle, including those from a panoramic dining room supported by a rotating, all-glass floor. The renovated restaurant space will occupy the 15-foot-long rotating ring at the circumference of the Space Needle’s Tophouse and will have wrap-around views of the city provided by a continuous band of thin-framed tempered glass windows. Below the glass slab floors, the Space Needle’s structure and the gear assemblies that keep the top spinning, will be visible, as well.Tihany Design is doing the restaurant's interiors, with interior architecture by Olson Kundig.The public observation platform above will receive new all-glass enclosures, including a glass railing and embedded glass benches. Safety fencing will also be replaced and exchanged for an all-glass envelope. ADA-compliant upgrades will also be made to the structure throughout.

Principals Alana Maskin and Blair Payson told The Architect’s Newspaper that “A key design goal for the project is to improve the breathtaking and awe-inspiring view from the observation deck for all visitors.” The designers plan on making the complex more responsive to the needs of differently-abled users by adding new accessibility ramps as well as a new platform lift for wheelchair accessibility will link the observation level and exterior observation deck. The lift is designed to function as a stair when not in use as wheelchair access and can transform automatically to fit each use. The designers will also boost accessibility features for all of the Space Needle’s bathrooms, enlarging and reconfiguring facilities to ensure ADA compliance.

Another goal of the project, Maskin and Payson explained, was to bring the new designs in line with original visions for the spire, which included floor-to-ceiling glass enclosures on the observation levels that were not entirely possible given existing technologies at the time of original construction. Maskin added, "If there is one material that defines this renovation, it is glass,” while explaining that the firm had partnered with glazing engineer Front to utilize “every typical glass type” in existence, from annealed, heat-

Construction is expected to be completed by summer 2018, and the Century Project website has more information.Blair Payson, Principal at Olson Kundig, will be speaking about the project at Facades+AM Seattle on December 8th.

COOKFOX, Olson Kundig, Gensler, Kohn Pederson Fox Associates (KPF), and Morris Adjmi Architects, have all been named as some of the nine architects spearheading Water Street Tampa, the $3 billion project that will give the Florida city a skyline.
Spread over nearly 50 acres, 18 buildings comprise the scheme which is being backed by Strategic Property Partners—a consortium between Jeff Vinik, who owns NHL’s Tampa Bay Lightning, and Bill Gates’s Cascade Investment. Though first announced in early July this year, more details, such as the architects involved, have been released.
Four New York firms are in on the act. COOKFOX will be designing two buildings: an office and a residential block which will sit atop some retail. KPF has been commissioned for a series of apartments and condominiums which will reside above some retail and a grocery store. Morris Adjmi Architects has scooped arguably the largest commission: a 157-key five-star hotel, a range of luxury condos, more apartments, and retail. Gensler, meanwhile, will be behind two office over retail projects.
Seattle firm Olson Kundig is also doing a similar project and Baker Barrios, from Orlando, are to design a central cooling facility. Greenery is coming via Tampa-based Alfonso Architects, who are fronting the redevelopment vision for the city's Channelside with a new public park, waterfront shops, and living units. Another Flordian firm, Nichols Brosch Wurst Wolfe & Associates from Coral Gables, are designing a 500-key hotel. Finally, New Haven, Connecticut practice Pickard Chilton are behind three projects that will office and residential over retail.
When finished, Water Street Tampa will boast more than two million square feet of offices. In doing so, the scheme will bring the first new office towers Downtown Tampa has seen in almost 25 years. Located on the Garrison Channel and Hillsborough Bay, the project, according to a press release, intends to bridge the city's cultural landmarks, including the Tampa Convention Center, Amalie Arena (where the Tampa Bay Lightning play), Tampa Bay History Center, and Florida Aquarium. This will be achieved via an array of public parks and spaces that lead to the waterfront where the Tampa Riverwalk, and five-mile-long Bayshore path, can be found.

Seattle-based Olson Kundig has released new renderings of the firm’s proposed renovations for Seattle’s Space Needle, the most extensive upgrades undertaken in the structure’s 55-year history. If the renovations shoot for anything, it’s more glass and bigger views—the firm’s designs aim to strip away some the aging barriers and partitions along the needle’s Tophouse observation platform, replacing old metal panels with floor-to-ceiling tempered glass. Steel metal panel partitions containing handrails along the exterior observation platform are being radically reconfigured as new structural glass barriers containing integrated glass benches that will allow for the “perfect spine-tingling Seattle selfie,” according to a project website.The existing wire metal “caging” structures that prevent people from jumping off the Space Needle will also be removed and replaced with structural glass partitions that will provide unobstructed views of the city’s growing skyline.Along the interior of the Tophouse, an existing, rotating restaurant will be refurbished and its interior finishes pared down. New York-based Tihany Design will provide interior design services for the restaurant portion of the renovation; the renderings featured here do not yet reflect those designs. The new renderings do, however, showcase all-white interiors with many of the existing partitions removed entirely. A new spiral staircase made out of wood, steel, and glass will be inserted into the Tophouse; this will allow visitors to climb between its multiple floors. Down below? A glass-floored oculus will showcase the Space Needle’s structure, the workings of the elevator systems, and the city below. A new Americans with Disabilities Act–compliant lift will also be added to the structure.The first phase of the $100-million project will begin in September 2017, with the work due to be completed in June 2018. For more information, see the project website.

The Architect’s Newspaper (AN)’s inaugural 2013Best of Design Awards featured six categories. Since then, it’s grown to 26 exciting categories. As in years past, jury members (Erik Verboon, Claire Weisz, Karen Stonely, Christopher Leong, Adrianne Weremchuk, and AN’s Matt Shaw) were picked for their expertise and high regard in the design community. They based their judgments on evidence of innovation, creative use of new technology, sustainability, strength of presentation, and, most importantly, great design. We want to thank everyone for their continued support and eagerness to submit their work to the Best of Design Awards. We are already looking forward to growing next year’s coverage for you.2016 Best of Design Award for Architectural Representation > Analog: Welcome to the 5th Facade
Architect:Olson KundigLocation: (Conceptual)

Conceived as accompanying illustrations for Olson Kundig’s award-winning science fiction story entry to Blank Space Project’s annual Fairy Tales competition, the project is part of Olson Kundig’s broader investigation of rooftops. Each image depicts the main character of “Welcome to the 5th Facade” at five plot points and presents a future vision for Seattle, where the story is set. The hybrid images are comprised of four separate media types: mural-size drawings in charcoal and pencil on canvas, portrait photography, and CGI.

This project is a conceptual exploration of memory in architecture: A son, confronted with his father’s loss of memory, requested a design for a family chapel and columbarium as an attempt to have a conversation with his father that he could no longer have.

These hand-drawn renderings of a transformed section of Houston’s former elevated freeway were a strategic choice to generate interest and dialogue in the project by conveying a sense that the concept was still “in progress” and open to feedback.

Today it was announced Olson Kundig Owner/Principal Alan Maskin would design the Jewish Museum Berlin Foundation’s new Kindermuseum.
Aimed at five- to twelve-year-olds, the Kindermuseum will sit within an old wholesale flower market, which is itself located between the Daniel Libeskind-designed Academy of the Jewish Museum and the museum's administrative offices. According to a recent release, the museum has a €3.44 million budget, with an additional €2.11 million going toward creating the exhibition.
Maskin's proposal was chosen from twelve invitees after two rounds of jury selections, the first of which took place in late April. His design will focus on the story of Noah's Ark: “The design by Olson Kundig has the potential to unpack the biblical story in all its relevance, as well as building connections with the present day―rescuing people and animals, the relationship between nature and civilization, and the chance to make new beginnings,” said Peter Schäfer, director of the Jewish Museum, in a press release.
The jury added that, in Maskin's proposal, “The scenography is extremely attractive and professional in terms of museum pedagogy. Its use of the Noah’s Ark motif playfully picks up on topical and relevant themes such as diversity, migration, creation, second chances, and new beginnings. The visitor is Noah, and can experience the multiple facets of these topics―on their own or in interaction and role-play.”
This is the second win for Olson Kundig in an international competition this year: the firm took first place in Blank Space's “Fairy Tales 2016" back in April.

Seattle-based firm Olson Kundig has announced a residency program for one lucky creative collaborator. While the firm is largely known for its residential work, kinetic architecture, and nature-focused design, Olson Kundig has a longstanding history of collaborations with artists. “‘What can we do together that we can’t do apart?’ This spirit is not only part of how we work with our collaborators, but also part of our fundamental office culture of critique and community,” said Olson Kundig principal and owner Alan Maskin in a press release.
Whoever is selected for the ‘Creative Exchange Residency Program’ will be awarded a $10,000 grant and integrated into the office for two to four weeks. The exact objective of the collaboration seems flexible, though the website mandates that the resident will "give a presentation to our office during one of our weekly Monday morning meetings," be "responsible for the cost of materials during residency," and be "responsible for travel and accommodations while participating in the residency."
Applications will be accepted until August 1.

The oldest state museum in Washington state—the Burke Museum at the University of Washington (UW) in Seattle’s U District—will get a new home slated to open in 2019. Seattle-based Olson Kundig is designing the new building for the museum that centers on natural history and culture.
Construction started last week on the new museum at 15th Avenue NE. The site neighbors the existing museum building at NE 45th Street and 17th Avenue NE. The new museum design opens up and unites the collection galleries, labs, research, education, and storage areas.
The 113,000 square foot building will have 60% more space—breathing room for the over 16 million scientific and cultural objects from the Pacific Northwest and beyond. Olson Kundig's design weaves in Northwest elements, such as wood siding and a shed-style roof.
“The University of Washington and Burke Museum were incredibly important to me during my student life, and the Burke was a place for me to engage with and connect to our rich local history and tradition of innovation,” Tom Kundig, Principal and Owner of Olson Kundig, said in a statement.
The museum has called many different places home. In 1879 a group of Seattle naturalists started collecting historical and scientific objects. They hosted them at the University of Washington, when the university was downtown at University Street and Fourth Avenue (what is now part of the Metropolitan Tract owned by the University). Then in 1899, the Washington state legislature designated the museum an official state museum. The Burke later moved to northeast Seattle, finally settling in the current space at NE 45th Street in 1962.
“The new facility will allow us to take science and cultural education to the next level by connecting students with the scientists and researchers at the Burke—role models who will inspire the next generation,” said Frank Chopp (who, incidentally, designed and built these two urban cabins with his father in Seattle's Central District), Washington State Speaker of the House (43rd LD) in a statement.
Over the years, remodeling the Burke building became less financially feasible. Storage space was tight and lacked climate-control protections.
The old museum will be demolished once move-in is complete to make way for the landscape design and parking. Demolition includes the Burke Café. A conservator will remove the cafe's circa 1720s wood paneling. The new Burke will display a portion of the paneling.
Another local Seattle firm is leading the landscape design. Guthrie Gustafson Nichol (GGN) is creating the courtyard and entryway filled with native plant species. Oxbow Farm & Conservation Center in Carnation is growing the close to 70,000 native plants needed for the project.
For every two trees removed, the design will add three trees. The University of Washington and Burke officials hope to reuse some of the wood in the construction.
“The landscape of the New Burke is designed to be as multifaceted and welcoming as the museum,” said Shannon Nichol, GGN founding principal in a statement. “It will serve as a new campus quad, a colorful garden experience, and a living emblem of our state’s natural heritage.”
The project budget is $99 million with the majority of funding coming from Washington State, with additional support from private gifts, University of Washington, as well as in-kind donations.

For those living in or visiting New York City this May and June, the Seattle-based firm Olson Kundig is partnering with the Brooklyn-based artist Duke Riley on a weekend public art performance and installation piece, Fly By Night, in the Brooklyn Navy Yard. (Event tickets are sold out, but there is a waitlist.) The non-profit arts organization, Creative Time, commissioned the piece.
At dusk on Fridays, Saturdays, and Sundays through June 12, the artist will awaken a flock of close to 2,000 pigeons living in a group of Olson Kundig-designed pigeon lofts resting on the docked and decommissioned Navy ship, the Baylander. The artist outfitted the pigeons with glowing LED leg bands. "We raise a flag and the birds then know to take off and start flying in different patterns," Riley told the New York Times in a short video.
https://vimeo.com/164326694
Riley was inspired by the site's former use as the military's largest pigeon coop. During World War II, the military used pigeons to deliver messages in the dead of night, with some pigeons traveling up to 600 miles in a single flight.
“The artist has a clear love for these pigeons and it came across in the design thinking behind the pigeon coops," said Olson Kundig Associate Kristen Becker, who worked with Riley on the pigeon lofts, in a statement. "The idea that the coops were designed to exist beyond the performance resonates in the way in which we detailed the piece. Each coop bay was designed not only to be installed quickly but also to be dismantled to be reused and donated as individual coops afterwards. Instead of thinking of it as one building—we thought about it as a series of buildings."
After around 30 minutes, Riley calls the pigeons home with a whistle. Becker also designed 25 bird houses, taking cues from the Fly by Night pigeon lofts, for the April 28 Creative Time Gala, to help raise funds for free public access to art.